W.P.(C) No. 3415 of 2024 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI W.P.(C) No. 3415 of 2024 Singhania Agro, a Proprietorship firm having its registered office at Chandwa Shivsagar, Ρ.Ο & P.S Rohtas, District Rohtas, Bihar through its Proprietor Rajesh Prasad, aged about 46 years, S/O Ramji Prasad, R/O Ward No. 13, Bejaja Road, Daudnagar, Aurangabad, P.O Daudnagar, P.S. & District Aurangabad, Bihar. ... ... ... ... ... ... Petitioner Versus 1. The State of Jharkhand through the Secretary, Department of Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs, Government of Jharkhand, Project Building, P.O & P.S Dhurwa, District Ranchi, Jharkhand. 2. The Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Co-operative, Government of Jharkhand, Nepal House, Doranda, P.O & P.S Doranda, District Ranchi, Jharkhand. 3. The Jharkhand State Food and Civil Supplies Corporation Limited, through its Managing Director, having its office at JSFC Bhawan, Kadru, P.O & P.S Argora, Jharkhand District Ranchi. 4. The Secretary, Jharkhand State Food and Civil Supplies Corporation having its office at Project Bhawan, P.O & P.S Dhurwa, District Ranchi, Jharkhand. 5. The District Manager, Garhwa, Jharkhand State Food and Civil Supplies Corporation Limited, 2nd Floor, Collectorate Building, P.O, P.S & District Garhwa, Jharkhand. … … ... Respondents --------- CORAM: HON’BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE GAUTAM KUMAR CHOUDHARY --------- For the Petitioner: Mr. Amit Kr. Chaturvedi, Advocate For the Res- 1 & 2: Mr. Saurabh Sagar, A.C. to S.C.III For the Res.-3 to 5: Dr. Ashok Kr. Singh, Advocate --------- 04/Dated: 10.01.2025 1) Heard the counsel for the petitioner and the counsel for the respondents 3 to 5. 2) The petitioner is a proprietary concerned engaged in a business of lifting, transportation and milling of food grains in the districts of Bihar and Jharkhand. During Kharif crop year 2021-2022 petitioner had extended services of lifting paddy from the PACS/LAMPS W.P.(C) No. 3415 of 2024 centers, milled the paddy and rice grain as per required specification and transported the finally milled rice to the designated FCI centers as directed by respondents 3 to 5 for the purpose of distribution. Petitioner states that there is an agreement dt. 25.1.2022 executed between the petitioner and respondent 5 in that regard. 3) Petitioner contends that though it had lifted a total of 1.77 lakh quintals of paddy and had supplied major portion of the milled rice, which was duly accepted and acknowledged by the FCI centers, payment owed to the petitioner has not been made by respondents 3 to 5. 4) Petitioner has filed copy of the legal notice dt. 13.4.2023 issued by it to respondent 5, representation dt. 10.8.2023 also made to respondent 5 claiming more than Rupees 3 crores as payment, and also representation dt 19.1.2024 reiterating the said request. 5) On account of the failure of respondents 3 to 5 to respond to the petitioner’s above legal notice/representations, this writ petition was filed by the petitioner on 18.5.2024. 6) Papers in the writ petition were served on the counsel for the respondents 3 to 5. Though more than seven months have elapsed since the filing of the writ petition, counsel for the respondents 3 to 5 has sought time to get instructions in the matter, as if the seven months period which the case took for listing was not sufficient to obtain instructions. 7) We deprecate this conduct of the respondents 3 to 5 in not only not responding to the legal notice/representations given by the petitioner, but not even instructing its counsel about the fate of the W.P.(C) No. 3415 of 2024 claim of the petitioner made in that legal notice and those representations. 8) Therefore, this writ petition is allowed and the respondents 3 to 5 are directed to decide the claim of the petitioner made in the above legal notice/representations within four weeks from today and communicate their decisions to the petitioner. 9) Respondent 3 shall also pay cost of Rs. 50,000/- to the petitioner for driving the petitioner to this Court for consideration of its representations. The said cost shall be paid within four weeks from today. (M.S. Ramachandra Rao, C.J.) (Gautam Kumar Choudhary, J.) Sharda/MM cp02